Clueless Newbie - Powerbook Audio Suitability Options

[protocool]

Hi,

I'd *really* appreciate some guidance from those who know more than I do (and there must be plenty of you out there!).

A little background. I've got a powerbook 1.5ghz with 1.5gb of ram. It was not bought with recording in mind - it's my work machine.

However, I'm considering letting my wife take it with her on a trip where she'd like to record some of her singer/songwriter tracks.

The sort of stuff she does is a few acoustic guitar tracks plus a vocal and a harmony or two. In a dreamworld she'd love to be able to produce something in the league of Nickel Creek's latest album but her realistic goal would be to produce a CD she'd be proud to sell for 10 bucks at one of her gigs.

We tried the whole "home recording studio" thing with a Korg D1200 and a Joe Meek ThreeQ preamp/compressor with a Studio Projects B1 and an Apex 460 mic. Alas, my wife just doesn't 'click' with the D1200. She finds the whole interface too confusing.

She's looked at GarageBand and she's *much* more comfortable with that interface.

So, here are my questions:

I tried plugging the threeq preamp into the line-in of the powerbook. It sounded good to me (but what do I know?). The threeq is apparently a *really* good single-channel preamp/eq/compressor but I'm wondering whether the powerbook AD conversion is noticably worse than the cheapest firewire AD converter...

So firstly, is a firebox (or similar) the minimum requirement to get a good sound with my powerbook (bearing in mind that the mic and preamp are reasonable)?

Secondly, lugging around the JoeMeek and one of the nice mics on her upcoming trip seems like a bad idea. She's got a little sony condensor mic with 1/8" jack that's got surprisingly good sound quality. It's more than good enough for noodling ideas but it's not suitable for the line-in levels of the powerbook.

I've seen the Griffin iMic advertised but also seen complaints about quality and latency (out of synch by as much as 100ms when putting down additional tracks). I'm not worried about wasting 30 bucks to try it out - I'm worried about discouraging my wife with a tool that she has difficulty controlling.

Is the iMic a bad bet? Is there another portable option to get mic level inputs into the powerbook - without breaking the bank?

Finally, of course I'm not expecting the sort of quality you'd get out of a system that costs thousands of dollars but do those of you in-the-know think it's reasonable to try and produce a "CD you'd be proud to sell for 10 bucks at a gig" with the equipment I've got?

Thanks very much for taking the time to read this.

Regards,
Trevor

[Morbass2004]

Hello Trevor
To answer some of your questions, Does your wife want to record guitar and vocals at the same time? Or one at a time? I have a Korg D16 so I'm familar with the Korg Series. Maybe you are trying to do too much.With the information that I read from you, It would seem like your wife is a plug and play kind of person. So with that in mind maybe you should lose the ThreeQ & Studio Projects B1 and the Ampex 460. Now I know that they are pieces of equipment (mic's, compressors,pre-amps,etc) that will do wonders but sometimes a Shure SM57 or a SM58 will get the job done for the time being. Plug them into the 1st 2 channels,of the Korg, get a level and your off to writing that masterpiece. If she approaches the Korg as a analog tape recorder (with no tape)maybe that would make more sense to her. Then when your wife gets back from her trip you can tweek the tracks later. Believe me I am a firm believer of gettting the best possible sound first then tweek later but sometimes you may not have that option.
Now with the Powerbook, all you would need is an interface http://m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophi...leUSB-main.html (The interfaces can vary, so you have to get what works for you and your budget.)
and a audio program to deal with the tracks that you (your wife) would like to record. Mackie makes a audio and midi program called Tracktion. http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion2/index.html Its pretty simple. Everything is on one window and its doesn't have too bad a learning curve.
Another one is Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Now bear in mind there are many more products that are out there on the web. These 2 can get you up and running with little or no fuss. Again you have the option of the Korg. I have used mine (Korg D16) for years. I have as out board gear a TC Electronic VoiceOne 2.0. And a TC Electronic Finalizer 96K. Plus the D16 Users Group that would get you into some modifications to make it really give you more possiblitys. if I didn't get a new Powerbook (1.67 mhz) I would still be using it. I hope I was able to help in anyway.
Good luck
Gene

[mortalengines]

Well, it gets down to whatever your ears are telling you- I understand Roger McGwinn (I hope I spelled it right - that guy from the Byrds) has been releasing mp3s of traditional folksongs & he just jacked straight into his powerbook(and this is a guy who has spent plenty of time in real studios & he may be using a 5000 dollar mic) - A step up from that is the Echo Indigo (which is still 1/8" in & out but still sounds really good. I also understand the Presonus stuff is really cool as is the Mackie stuff (like Spike- which comes with some really good, really simple software, good mic preamps & a reasonable price). But what the heck if you're happy with simple recordings & they sound good to your ears & your friends like it as well don't kill yourself trying to get some kind of "pristine" recording because this often a long, & frustrating road & for a while you will spend more time dinking around with software than you will actually be playing.

Ce message a été modifié par mortalengines - mar. 11 oct. 2005, 00:04.

[protocool]

Folks,

thanks for the replies.

Morbass, we started out with an SM58 into the Korg and my wife found it *really* difficult to get the input levels right. The dial (pot?) on the Korg seemed to only have an effective range between the 3 oclock and 5 oclock positions and minute changes in that range had pretty drastic effects. That's one reason we got the JoeMeek. I was able to set the input levels on the korg and leave them, doing all fine adjustments on the JoeMeek.

As an experiment I left the JoeMeek plugged into my powerbook while I ran errands for a couple of hours. I told my wife "here's the icon for garageband, play around with it if you like".

By the time I got back she had burned a CD of a track she laid down and was listening to it on our stereo to see how it sounded there. The quality of the recording (complete with harmonies and a fiddle!) was easily as good as the best we'd ever achieved on the Korg and her enthusiasm was contagious. It wasn't just that she did it all by herself, just "figuring it out" as she went along, it was that she had a clear plan for how she could do better next time, tweaking things from mic placement to the final mix.

That's when she told me to go buy a Mac Mini so she can kick me off the powerbook whenever she wants to record. Considering how many times she's asked "when are you getting your mini?" I'd say she's going to be kicking me off a *lot*.

And finally (sorry this goes on for so long), I picked up a Griffin iMic and it's *not* suitable at all, even as a travel solution. Aside from the obvious background hiss (that I can't get rid of no matter where I move to) I can't get a good input level from her mini condensor mic (Sony ECM-MS907). The mic works great into her portable minidisc but there's no difference (apart from the hiss) between plugging it into the iMic or into the line-in of the powerbook. If I switch the iMic to line-level I get nothing at all, so I assume the line/mic level switch is working...

I guess I need to read up on mic levels because maybe this little mic operates in a way that I don't understand...

Anyhow, thanks again for the replies, there's lots of good info in there for me to look at.

Regards,
Trevor

[Morbass2004]

Hello Trevor
I'm glad that you and the Mrs, is moving forward and getting some things recorded. We all have a trial and error approach. I'm not sure about the Sony microphpone. If You can, try the SM58 again or try: http://www.rode.com.au/?pagename=Products&...s&product=NT1-A There cheap (somewhat and they sound good)
MorBass